My best friend
by x.xOracles.Shadowx.x
Summary: Ned Stark has two very different conversations with two very different people. Just a typical day at King's Landing. - AU, Characters are in university. Enjoy! T because I'm paranoid. Lyanna and Rhaegar are still alive!


**AN: Hi, everyone! So, first of all, thank you so much to the three people who reviewed my JaimeBrienne story, 'Don't turn out the lights now'. I really appreciate the input because I was actually a little nervous about posting into a whole new fandom. I'm glad my writing here has been enjoyed. :) This new story is the first of two, and again, this idea wouldn't leave me alone so I had to write it. Again, it's set in an AU, where all the adult characters from ASoIaF are attending King's Landing University (Hey, write about what you know, right?), and it features two of my personal favorites, those wolves of Winterfell, Eddard and Lyanna. **

**Now, regardless of which side of the fence you sit on on the matter of Jon's parentage (RhaegarLyanna *cough*), I think we can all agree that Ned must have really loved his sister. And not in the creepy JaimeCersei way. Ick. I mean, his promise to her was his motivation and a key character point for him all through his time in the series, and I thought it would be interesting to try my hand at kind of a modern rendition of the RobertLyanna romance with poor Ned stuck in the middle. Now, personally, I'm team Rhaegar the whole way. From what I've seen, Lyanna would have been happier with Rhaegar. (Watch. G.R.R. Martin is going to come out of nowhere and make Rhaegar a total tool.) **

**So, since I apparently can't stop writing them in a modern universe, this was born. I hope you enjoy it, guys, and I'm working on a second chapter featuring Ned and Robert on the issue of Lyanna. Which should be a treat for me because I find Robert's character really difficult to get in to, but I will try!**

**Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it. **

When he saw the dark look on his little sister's face, Ned Stark knew it wasn't going to be a good day. He sighed, hearing the deep sound of his best friend's voice in the hallway Lyanna had just walked out of, and put his arm around her shoulders as they walked.

"I'm going to kill him, Ned.", Lyanna fumed, and her brother sighed again while opening the door into the quad of King's Landing University for her.

"What happened this time?", Ned asked, the two walking over to a low sitting bench under an oak tree. This happened once or twice a month but never got any easier. Ned wondered how long it would be until Robert came to him in the aftermath of pissing off Lyanna, yet again.

"He saw me talking with Rhaegar and lost it, Ned. It's like he doesn't understand that I'm not his girlfriend, and even if I was, he'd have no control over who I talked to. Besides, Rhaegar and I are paired up for a project; we have to talk!", Lyanna explained, leaning over and putting her head in her hands. Ned just rubbed her back silently, knowing that she was still in her angry, 'I won't listen to reason until I've calmed down so just shut the hell up and let me mope in peace for a moment' phase, something she seemed to learn from their brother Brandon.

After a few minutes of silence, Lyanna sighed and sat back, her brown hair tied up in a braid that lay on her shoulder. "Ned, I don't know how much longer I can deal with this. Robert just doesn't know when to stop.", Lyanna told him.

"Lya, you've got to remember, Robert has been in love with you since he was five. Seeing you with Rhaegar is going to bother him.", Ned told her diplomatically. Personally, he thought Robert was going about pursuing his sister in all the wrong ways, but Robert wouldn't listen to reason whenever Ned told him as much. Lyanna wasn't interested in how much money you had or how strong you were; she was a blackbelt, and their family was one of the richest in King's Landing. She didn't need strength or money; what she needed from her significant other were respect and intelligent conversation, neither of which Robert was very good at, if Ned was being honest.

But, when it came to his sister, Robert turned into a pompous, bumbling fool who very rarely saw sense, something that his current girlfriend Cersei seemed to take full advantage of. Ned frowned and decided not to think of Cersei right then; he'd had several arguments with Robert about the less admirable virtues of his girlfriend, but Robert just brushed it off, saying that he was just killing time until Lyanna saw sense. (Ned thought his eye roll was perfectly justified and walked away without another word.)

At the mention of Rhaegar, Lyanna turned faint red and looked at the ground between her shoes. "But I'm not with Rhaegar! We're just working together on a project, and we're friends, that's it.", Lyanna insisted, and Ned wondered if she was trying to convince him or herself. Ned knew his little sister a bit better than that, and he knew her feelings for Rhaegar Targaryen went a little beyond the 'friend zone'. Of course, by that token, he knew the same about Rhaegar, but hadn't told either party that their 'just friends' routine wasn't fooling anyone. "Besides, if he's so in love with me, why is he with that blond whore?"

Ned had to resist the urge to smile at that. Lyanna, ladies and gentlemen, was as blunt a Stark as their ever was. She didn't want Robert, but she made her feelings about his current girlfriend known loudly and at length.

"He says he's waiting for you to see sense, and that Cersei is just his way of killing time.", Ned chuckled, seeing the look on Lyanna's face morph into one that almost screamed, 'And he wonders why I keep turning him down.'

"And what about the two he was with before Cersei? And the four last year? Or the dozen girls he was with in second year?", Lyanna readily listed off. Ned was of the belief that, on some level, Lyanna did love Robert, but just not enough to put up with his wandering eye and hair trigger temper. Which, he thought, explained why she could recite a bibliography's worth of Robert's past conquests on demand.

"Lya, Robert's not perfect, but he does love you. If you said you would be with him, he would never look at another girl again." Ned could tell that she knew he didn't really believe that; they'd had this discussion one too many times.

While Ned would talk up his best friend's good points until the cows came home, he would always be the first to admit to his faults, and the one fault that Lyanna could never look past was that Robert would never be loyal to her. He would expect loyalty from her, but as hard as he would try, he would never be able to stay true to her. Lyanna had known Robert far too long to lie to herself about that, and had been there to witness every time one of his relationships went up in flames. It put Ned in an awkward position because he was always the one Robert turned to to pick up the pieces every time Lyanna turned him down.

"Ned, I know he's your best friend but I can't be with Robert. Maybe someday when he's calmed down he'll find the right woman, but that will never be me.", Lyanna told Ned, and even though he knew it would kill Robert because, for all his faults, he really did love Lyanna, he was glad to hear it. If Robert ever cheated on his baby sister, Ned would have had to kill him or excommunicate him entirely, which would have been the equivalent of cutting off his leg.

"I know, Lya. I'm not looking forward to it by any means, but I want you both to be happy.", Ned promised her, hugging his sister. After their brother and father's deaths in a freak car accident, Lyanna and Ned had become almost inseparable. He turned to her and was glad to see she was smiling again. "So, tell me, what's this project you and Rhaegar are working on?"

Lyanna's face glowed faintly red, but she ploughed through an explanation of the project – a powerpoint slide and an essay on south-eastern agriculture. Ned was actually proud of her for managing to say, "And I'm going to Rhaegar's house tonight to work on it, so I won't be home for dinner. Don't smirk at me like that, Ned, its true!" with a straight face. Well, as straight as it could be with her blushing the entire time.

"Lya, you know that as long as you're happy, I'll support whoever you choose to be with, right?", Ned asked her, and Lyanna nodded.

"I know.", she said quietly, then gave him a look of such hopelessness that it broke his heart a little bit, seeing so much pain on his baby sister's face. "It's just… It's hard, knowing that me being happy will make you miserable in the long run. Robert isn't going to give you a moment's peace, Ned, and I'll be the cause of it. That's not easy for me. You're my brother, I don't want-"

"Lya, stop. You just leave Robert to me. I think, after being friends with him for this long, I know how to handle him.", Ned laughed, and Lyanna just smiled at her brother.

"I hope you're right. Have I ever thanked you?", Lyanna asked, standing up.

"For what?", Ned asked, then received a kiss on the cheek and hug. He hugged his sister back, and hoped that whatever happened, he'd never lose Lyanna. He couldn't honestly see a life without his sister in it; it was just one long, boring void without her.

"For being the greatest brother a girl could ask for.", Lyanna told him, then added, "And for being my best friend."

Ned just smiled and hugged her back, thinking back to when they were little and Ned would carry her around the backyard on his shoulders. "You don't have to thank me, Lya. What else are brothers for?", Ned asked, then let go of his sister.

He saw the familiar hair of Rhaegar Targaryen appear in the doors to the quad, the man himself looking around. Ned nodded to him, then smiled at Lyanna. She looked behind her and raised her hand in a wave, then turned to Ned. He nodded and made a pushing motion towards Rhaegar.

"Well, what are you waiting for? You've got a project to work on, don't you?", Ned asked. Lyanna nodded and hugged him again, then shouldered her backpack and walked towards where Rhaegar stood. Ned sighed, knowing that this was eventually going to end very, very badly, but resolved himself to do whatever it took to prevent that end.

As his cell phone rang and Robert's name lit up the screen when he checked the called ID, Ned sighed again. This, he supposed, is what happened when you were the best friend of two vastly different people.

"I'm in the quad, Robert.", Ned said in greeting, and was promptly hung up on. He waited in silence under the tree for the arrival of the second most important person in his life, and hoped he had enough control to keep Robert oblivious to the fact that his battle for Lyanna had been lost before it'd even begun.

**AN: Ned is amazing. That's it, I hope you enjoyed it! Any questions, comments or concerns? Please do let me know, I love constructive criticism. And I just noted there's a distinct lack of Catelyn in this... But she'll probably turn up later. Maybe. **

**Much love, and thanks for reading!  
>Oracle. (L) <strong>


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